Our society-culture courses offer humanities-based reflections on themes and historical periods related to one or more regions of East Asia.
They are aimed at deepening and expanding the critical concepts and skills introduced in our gateway course sequence (EAS103/105/209), and, at the upper levels, encourage students to undertake reference-based research and writing.
For a list of EAS society-culture courses, please select the appropriate tabs below:
- EAS193H1 - What is “The Yellow Peril”?
- EAS194H1 - East Asia through Music
- EAS195H1 - Shan Shui Landscape: A Cultural Historical Study
- EAS196H1 - Consumption, Taste and Culture in East Asia
- EAS197H1 - Media Worlds and East Asia
- EAS198H1 - Martial Arts in East Asian Narratives
- EAS199H1 - Thinking through Art in Chinese Culture
- EAS103H1 - Premodern East Asia
- EAS105H1 - Modern East Asia
These courses introduce broad themes and historical periods related to one or more regions of East Asia. These courses continue to promote the core concepts and skills as first introduced in our gateway courses (EAS103/105/209), aimed to help students undertake reference-based research work and to prepare students for upper-level courses.
Our 200-level Society-Culture courses are below (please note that they are not all offered every year—please refer to the A&S Timetable for current courses):
- EAS218H1 - Classical Chinese Prose
- EAS219H1 - Cultural History of Food & Drink in East Asia
- EAS231H1 - Tales of the Supernatural in Chinese Literature
- EAS235H1 - Perceptions of China in Japanese Literature
- EAS236H1 - Queer Feminist Literature: Writing in Global Capitalism
- EAS241H1 - Introduction to Chinese Philosophy
- EAS242H1 - Japanese Cinemas I: Film Form and the Problems of Modernity
- EAS243H1 - Japanese Cinemas II: Film Form and the Problems of Modernity
- EAS245H1 - Premodern Japanese History
- EAS246H1 - Early Modern Japanese History
- EAS247H1 - History of Capitalism in Modern Japan
- EAS248H1 - Marxism and East Asia
- EAS249H1 - Sinophone Cinemas: Revolution of the Sensible World
- EAS251H1 - Aesthetics and Politics in 20th Century Korea
- EAS256H1 - Chinese Literature (Pre-Qin to Tang)
- EAS257H1 - Chinese Literature (Song to Qing)
- EAS263H1 - Classical Japanese Literature
- EAS270H1 - Narratives of 19th-Century Korea
- EAS271H1 - 20th Century Korean Colonial History
- EAS272H1 - The Two Koreas in World History
- EAS273H1 - Modern Chinese Cities
- EAS274H1 - Popular Culture in East Asia
- EAS278H1 - Approaches to Korean Cinema
- EAS279H1 - East Asian Ecocinema
- EAS284H1 - Modern Chinese Literature
- EAS285H1 - Revolutions in Modern China
- EAS289H1 - Environment and East Asia
- EAS295Y0 - Topics in East Asian Studies (Summer Abroad)
- EAS296H1 - Topics in East Asian Studies
- EAS297H1 - Texts, Images and Objects in East Asia
These courses consist of more closely defined topics that bring about more depth and nuance of knowledge. They have a greater emphasis on writing, the use of critical concepts, and in-depth engagement with the material. Most courses will involve both lecture-based content and classroom discussion, although the exact proportion will vary from course to course. 300-level courses are typically limited to 50 students (the prerequisite is EAS105).
Our 300-level Society-Culture courses are below (please note that they are not all offered every year—please refer to the A&S Timetable for current courses):
- EAS307H1 - Traditional Chinese Political Philosophy
- EAS308H1 - East Asia Seen in Maps, Ancient and Modern
- EAS309H1 - Modern Chinese Prose
- EAS311H1 - A History of Japanese Monsters
- EAS312H1 - Art and Archaeology of Early China
- EAS314H1 - Culture & World After Hiroshima & Nagasaki
- EAS315H1 - The "Yellow Peril": Past & Present
- EAS324H1 - The Asia-Pacific in the Nuclear Age
- EAS327H1 - Japanese Fiction and the Nation
- EAS328H1 - Science, Technology and Society in Modern China
- EAS329H1 - Cross-Cultural History of Scents and Aromatics
- EAS330H1 - Narrative Strategies in Modern Japanese Fiction
- EAS333H1 - Modernism and Colonial Korea
- EAS334H1 - Chinese Novels
- EAS335H1 - Introduction to Manchu Language and History
- EAS338H1 - Classical Daoism
- EAS340H1 - Chinese Society and Culture
- EAS343H1 - A History of Sushi
- EAS345Y1 - The Rise of Greater China: Issues & Topics
- EAS347H1 - Everyday Life in Modern Japan
- EAS348H1 - Gift, Plunder, and Exchange: Japan and World History
- EAS349H1 - Soundscapes and Modern China
- EAS350H1 - Ideology and Japan
- EAS354H1 - Body, Movement, Japan
- EAS355H1 - The Art and Politics of Video in Japan
- EAS357H1 - Mao's China and Beyond
- EAS358Y1 - Classical Chinese I
- EAS361H1 - Zen Buddhism
- EAS362Y1 - Classical Japanese
- EAS363H1 - Classical Japanese Part I
- EAS364H1 - China's Cultural Revolution: History and Memory
- EAS365H1 - Classical Japanese Part II
- EAS370H1 - Media, Cultural Citizenship, and the Korean Diaspora
- EAS372H1 - The Postwar, Cold War and Divided Koreas
- EAS373H1 - Revolutionaries, Rebels, and Dissent in Korea's Long 20th Century
- EAS374H1 - Modern Japan and the Colonial Question
- EAS375H1 - Postwar Japan: Crisis, Apocalypse
- EAS378H1 - Urban Life in Early Modern Japan
- EAS380H1 - Writing Women in Premodern China
- EAS381H1 - Moral Agency in Chinese Thought
- EAS384H1 - Medieval Japan
- EAS386H1 - Culture of Nature in China
- EAS387H1 - Images and Ideas in Chinese Art
- EAS388H1 - Asian/North American Feminist Issues
- EAS389H1 - Dangerous Bodies: Crossings in Gender and Sexuality Studies
- EAS391H1 - Transnational East Asian Cinema
- EAS392H1 - East Asian Television
- EAS393H1 - Chinese Buddhism
- EAS394H1 - Film Culture in Contemporary China
- EAS395Y0 - Topics in East Asian Studies (Summer Abroad)
- EAS396H1 - Special Topics in East Asian Studies
- EAS398Y0 - Research Excursions
- EAS398H0 - Research Excursions
These courses are seminars that deal with more specialized subjects that are often connected to a faculty’s research. They require extensive reading, writing, and in-class discussion. In most cases, they also require from the student a research paper that develops original ideas about the material. 400-Level society-culture courses are limited to 20-25 students (the prerequisite for all of them is EAS209).
Our 400-level Society-Culture courses are below (please note that they are not all offered every year—please refer to the A&S Timetable for current courses):
- EAS406Y1 - Thinking about Things: Material Culture in East Asia